Asus PCI/I-486SP3G User manual

-
-
e
Copyright
This Product, Including Any Software And Documentation, May Not, In
Whole
Or In Part, Be Copied, Photocopied, Translated Or Reduced To
Any Electronic Or Machine-Readable Form Without Prior Written Consent
From ASUSTek
Computer Inc., Except For Copies Retained By The
Purchaser For Backup Purposes.
No Warranty
Or Representation, Either Expressed Or Implied, Is Made
With Respect To This Documentation, Its Quality, Performance, Merchant-
ability,
Or Fitness For A Particular Purpose. As A Result, The Documenta-
tion
Is Licensed "As Is," And The Licensee Will Assume The Entire Risk
As To Its Quality
And Performance. This Manual Is Copyrighted By
ASUSTek And Its Documentation Vendor And All Rights Are Reserved.
ASUSTek Reserves The Right To Revise This Manual
And A. ny Accompa-
nying Software
And Documentation And To Make Changes In The
Content Without Obligation To Notify Any Person
Or Organization Of
The Revision Or Change.
In No Event Will ASUSTek
Be Liable For Direct, Indirect, Special, Inciden-
tal,
Or Consequential Damages Arising Out Of The Use Or Inability To
Use This
Product Or Documentation Even If Advised Of The Possibility
Of Such Damages. In Particular, ASUSTek Shall Not Have Liability For
Any Hardware, Software, Or Data Stored Or Used With The Product,
Including The Costs
Of Repairing, Replacing, Or Recovering Such
Hardware, Software Or Data.
Products Mentioned In This Manual Are Mentioned For Identification
Purposes Only. Product Names
Appearing In This Manual May Or May
Not Be Registered Trademarks Or Copyrights Of Their Respective
Companies.
©Copyright 1994 ASUSTek
Computer Inc.
Doc.
No: AS9408B, PCI!l-486SP3G User's Manual Rev 1.2
Related Mai.nboard : PCI!l-486SP3G P.C.B. Rev 1.8 and up
Related BIOS :#401A0-0301 or
up (Shown as Power On Boot up
Screen Top-Left Comer)
Date : 1994 August, ASUSTek COMPUTER INC.
~eeeGeeeeeeeeeeeeeGeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
II

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Feature Guide ............................................. 1-1
How The Manual Is Organized ........ ......... .. . .... .. ........................ 1-1
Main Features ................................................................................ 1-2
Static Electricity Precautions .......................
.. ... ........................... 1-4
Mainboard Layout ................................................................... 1-4
Using Your Mainboard ........................ ... ................................ .. . ... 1-6
Hardware Settings........... ... .. ................... ... .. ........................... 1-6
The System Configuration Record ...... ...... ............................ 1-8
Green Features ......................................................................... 1-9
On Board Multi I/O ... . .. .. ......... ... . .... ... . .. ....... .. . .. , .. . .. ....... ... . .. 1-10
System IRQs ....................
.. ............................ .. ....................... 1-11
The SCSI Controller............................................................... 1-12
Chapter 2: Upgrade Guide ........................................... 2-1
Installing Expansion Cards .......................................................... 2-2
Installation
Procedure .............................................................2-2
Assigning System IRQs ................................................................ 2-4
Selecting IRQ Settings for Edge-Triggered
Cards ............... 2-5
Upgrading System Memory ................................................. .. ..... 2-8
Configuring System Memory ................................................ 2-9
Installing
Memory Modules ............................................ .. .. 2-12
Installing A
CPU Upgrade ............................ .- .. .......... .. .............. 2-14
Installing a SCSI
Hard Disk or Other SCSI Device ................ 2-17
SCSI
ID Numbers & Termination ... ........................... .. ..... ... 2-17
SCSI Installation
Procedure ................................................. 2-18
Installing IDE
Hard Disks............................................ .. ............ 2-19
Installing a
Primary IDE Hard Disk ........ ... ........................2-19
Installing a Second IDE
Hard Disk ... ................. .. .. ............. 2-20
Chapter 3: Software Guide ........................................... 3-1
Award BIOS Setup .......................... .. ................ .. .......................... 3-1
Standard CMOS Setup ....... .. ...................................... .. . .. ........ 3-3
BIOS Features
Setup .. ........................................................... ... 3-8
Chipset Features Setup ... ............. .. ......,...... .. ... ................ .. ...3-12
Power Management Setup ................................................. .. 3-16
PCI
Configuration Setup ................................ .. . ... ................ 3-22
Load BIOS Defaults...............................................................3-24
.. , .......................................... .
II I

PC1/l-486SP3G User's Manual
Load Setup Defaults..................... ... ...................................... 3-25
Setting Supervisor & User
Passwords ..................:............. 3-26
IDE
HDD Auto Detection..................................................... 3-27
HDD Low Level Format ....................................................... 3-29
Save
And Exit Setup.............................................................. 3-30
Exit Without Saving .............................................................. 3-30
NCR SCSI BIOS & Drivers ...................................... .... ............... 3-31
Award Flash Memory Writer Utility ................... ... .................. 3-32
Chapter 4: Technical Summary ................................... 4-1
Jumper Setting Summary ............................................................. 4-1
ISA/PCI IRQ Assignments: JPl -JPlO ............................... .. 4-1
DMA Channel: JPll -JP12 ............................................. ... . .... 4-2
On-board SCSI Control: JP16 -JP17 .....................................4-2
CPU External Clock Selector: JP18 & JP20 ........................... 4-3
BIOS Flash
Memory Voltage Selector: JP21 ..................... .... 4-3 •
PS/2 Mouse Interrupt: JP22 (IRQ12) ................................. ... 4-4
Level 2 Cache Size: JP26 -JP29 .............................................. 4-4
CPU SL Selector: JP30 -JP32 ........................................ .. ....... 4-5
CPU Internal Clock Selector: JP33......................................... 4-5
CPU Type Selectors: JP34 -JP36, JP38 ...... .. .......................... 4-6
Intel
DX4/Cyrix DX2-V Voltage Selection: JP40 ................. 4-7
CPU Options .................... .. ......... ... ..................... .. ......................... 4-7
Memory Subsystem ................................................................ 4-8
Connectors.............................................................................. 4-10
Port & Controller Cables.................................................4-12
SCSI, FDD, & IDE Interfaces ...................... .. .................. 4-13
Serial and Parallel Interfaces ..........................................4-14
Connecting The
Power Supply ........... .... . ... . ... ..................... 4-14
The PCI-SC200 SCSI Interface Card ......................................... 4-15
Setting
Up the PCI-SC200........ ... ..........................................4-16
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
IV
Jl
Feature Guide
This manual explains how to use this system mainboard and in-
stall
upgrades. It provides an overview of the design and features of
the
board and gives useful informationif you want to change the con-
figuration of the board,
or a system it is installed in.
How The Manual Is Organized
This manual is divided into four chapters:
Feature
Guide - an overview of the board features
Upgrade Guide - upgrades for the board or system
Software Guide -the Setup Utility and other software
Technical
Summary -technical reference
The manual assumes that your mainboard is already installed in
a
computer system, so we've organized the contents to reflect this.
The first chapter introduces the mainboard's features and shows
where things are on the board in case you want to install an upgrade.
Chapter 2 explains how to install mainboard upgrades. It also
explains
what to do if a system upgrade affects the mainboard.
Chapter 3 Explains the Award BIOS Setup Utility program you
use to create the system configuration record, as well as the other
programs that help set up your system .
Chapter 4 lists the settings and specifications for the mainboard
and explains the SCSI interface card.
Since
we are assuming that your mainboard is already installed
in a system, it was most likely set up by your system dealer accord-
ing to the design specifications of your computer .
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
1- 1

1l
PCI/I-486SP3G User's Manual
This could mean that the mainboard's current settings are not the
same as the defaults shown in this manual. Your system manual may
have additional information on how the mainboard should be set up.
If you want to change the existing configuration, consult all of
your system documentation. Be certain that opening up and work-
ing on the system yourself won't violate your system warranty. Most
system vendors allow you to open the system to install expansion
cards or additional peripheral equipment.
This manual provides all the information you need to upgrade
or change the setup of the board. If you don't feel confident of your
ability to work on the computer yourself, ask your dealer or a quali-
fied teclmician to
do it for you.
Main Features
The PCI/I -486SP3G has many performance and system features
integrated onto the mainboard, including the following:
• Mulitple
CPU upgrade options. This mainboard can use any
Intel486 or compatible CPU or Pentium OverDrive (P24T) run-
ning at 25 or 33MHzexternally. You must have an Intel SL En-
hanced or Intel DX4 CPU to use the Green features.
•
"Green" features that meet Energy Star requirements, includ-
ing BIOS-level power management features and a connector
for a
system Suspend switch.
• High-performance Write-Through
or Write-Back "Level 2" ex-
ternal static RAM cache in three size options: 128KB, 256KB
and 512KB.
• Foursocket high-speed 32-bit
or 36 -bit DRAM design that uses
72-pin DRAM
modules in a wide variety of memory configu-
rations
up to 128MB for flexible and economical upgrades .
Feature Guide
1l
• Dual-bus design with 4 ISA and 3 PCI expansion slots. The PCI
bus runs at the CPU's external clock speed and all slots have
bus-master capability.
• Flexible
ISA/PC! bus IRQ assignments in both hardware and
firmware allow the use of both Level- and Edge-triggered PCI
expansion cards.
•
On-board 'Multi-I/0' connections: 2 serial ports, 1 parallel
port, configurable as primary or secondary COM and LPT
ports; an IDE
hard disk drive interface c01mector and a floppy
disk drive controller and connector.
•
On-board SCSI BIOS with an (optional) on-board PCI SCSI
controller
and a PCI-bus SCSI peripheral connector.
•
Model options of PS/2 keyboard and/or mouse connector .
• On-board multi-year battery support to maintain system con-
figuration information.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •••••••••••••••••••• g ••••••••••••••••••••••
1-2 1- 3

1l
PCI/I-486SP3G User's Manual
Static Electricity Precautions
Under the right conditions, static electricity will build up in your
body. If you touch the mainboard or other sensitive components, the
build - up will discharge into the components and circuitry. Computer
components are sensitive to damage from static electric discharge.
They can be damaged or destroyed if the discharge is powerful
e nough . Static build - up is most likely to occur in dry and cold con-
ditions,
but it is always important to be cautious.
To protect the mainboard and other components against damage
from static electric discharge, you should follow some basic precau-
tions whenever you handle them:
l. Use a grounding wrist strap. The strap will have an 'alligator'
clip at the end of a shielded wire lead. Clip it to a grounded
object. Any static electricity will then harmlessly discharge
through the strap . Put on and connect the strap before you
handle the components.
2. Use an anti-static pad. Put any components on the pad when-
ever you work on them outside the computer. If you don't have
a pad, put the components on the anti-static bag they came in .
Both the
wrist strap and pad are inexpensive and are generally
available
from computer supply companies.
Mainboard Layout
The following diagram shows the location of ports, connectors
and subsystems you can upgrade on the mainboard.
Feature Guide
1l
Mainboard Layout
00
D O
[[ill
rn ' Q
1
"' '"WM
, . CD
,D .
! . ' ' 0
Do
1. ZIF socket & CPU
5. Parallel & Serial connectors
2. ISA Bus expansion slots 6. Memory module sockets
3. PCI Bus expansion slots 7. SCSI, Floppy & IDE connectors
4. Keyboard &power connectors 8. L2 cache sockets
...........................................·•............................................
1- 4 J'I 1-5

1l
PCI/I-486SP3G User's Manual
Using Your Mainboard
In addition to the operating instructions in your system manual,
there are a few additional things specific to the mainboard you may
need to know. This section explains how to make hardware settings
on the mainboard and how the system configuration record works.
Following are useful information
on the board's "Green" features,
IRQs,
1/0 ports and peripheral device coru1ectors.
Hardware Settings
There are a variety of hardware setting options on the board.
These specify what hardware is installed on the board. The settings
are
made using something called 'jumpers'. A jumper is a set of two
or more metal pins with a plastic base mounted on the mainboard.
A plastic jumper 'cap' is used to establish hardware settings. This cap
has a metal contact inside which fits over two pins to create an elec-
trical contact
betw e en them .
Some
jumpers only have two pins, others have three. The jump-
ers are sometimes combined into sets called jumper blocks, where all
the
jumpers in the block must be set together to establish the hard-
ware setting. The figure below shows how this looks.
Jumpers and caps
ill il
.,.,.,, ll!llllllBll'
.erl
Jumper cap
3-pin jumper 2-pin jumper
Jumper block
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
1- 6
Feature Guide
1l
On the mainboard, the settings for each jumper are printed on the
board with a stylized bird's-eye view. For example, if a jumper has
three pins, connecting, or 'shorting', the first and second pins creates
one setting and shorting the second and third pins creates another.
The same type of diagram is used in this manual. The jumpers are
always shown from the same point of view as shown in the whole-
board diagram in this chapter. The figures below show what the
manual diagrams look like and what they represent.
Jumper diagrams
Jumpers are shown like this
Jumper caps like this
Jumper settings like this
Io G-€) 1
Io
G-€)1
I G-€) ol
Jumpers in
a 'block'
u
ill
.,.,.,,
.,
..
[O OJ
[O 0 O]
[0 G-€)[
~
Some jumpers are oriented
vertically; if
the pin position
needs to be shown, pin 1 is
marked.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
1- 7

1l
PCI/I-486SP3G User's Manual
The System Configuration Record
All personalcomputers use a BIOS (Ba s ic Input Output Software)
as the basic software
that tells the computer how to function. In or-
der for the BIOS to function, there has to be a record of the computer's
hardware and configuration settings for it to refer to. This record is
created
by using a software program that is permanently stored in
the BIOS ROM chip on the mainboard . The program is called the
Setup Utility.
The
system configuration record the utility creates is also stored
on the mainboard. Unlike the utility program, the record is not re-
corded permanently. The memory it gets stored in must be main-
tained by battery power when the computer is turned off. If battery
support fails, the record will be lost and you will have to recreate it.
When you buy your computer, the system configuration record
will already
be set. It will be optimized for your computer hardware
and may vary from the Setup defaults. You should run the Setup Util-
ity
when you first use your computer. Write down the settings. There
is
an explanation of how to run the Setup Utility in Chapter 3.
Important:
In somecircumstances itis possible the configuration record may
be corrupted or lost. If this happens, your computer will not work
properly the next time you turn it on. This is not a serious problem.
To fix it, run the Setup Utility by pressing the Del key when you turn
the computer on and re-enter your configuration from your written
record. When you restart the computer, it will work normally.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
1-8
Feature Guide
1l
Green Features
This mainboard incorporates a number of features that when
used together with other electricity-saving components in a system
design fw1ction together to significantly reduce the amount of elec-
tricity
needed to operate the system. This saving both re duces your
computers operating cost and contributes to world-wide efforts at
environmental protection. The design specifications for this are de-
fined
by the Energy Star program being promoted by the Environ-
mental Protection Agency in the United States.
Your
mainboard can contribute to this effort in two ways. It can
use a low-voltage SL Enhanced or DX4 486 CPU that requires less
power and allows you to use the Power Management features built
into the BIOS Setup Utility. These features let you s et up your com -
puter so that it will enter on e of several low or minium power con-
sumption modes after a certain time. The power management scheme
includes two pre-defined schemes, Minimum and Maximum, and
one you can define yourself.
Power Management also provides thr ee power s aving mode s,
Doze, Standby
and Suspend whose activation delays you can define.
In addition, there is also a connector for a case-mounted system Sus-
pe
nd button that lets you put the system into Suspend mode when -
e
ver you like.
The section
on Power Management Configuration in Chapter 3
explains how to set up power management. Fully configured for
Green operation,
your system will be able to cut its electricity con-
s
umption to a fraction of the wattage it uses in full power mode .
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
1- 9

11
PCI/I-486SP3G User's Manual
On Board Multi 1/0
Your mainboard has Multi-1/0 functions built onto the board. In
your configured system you will access these as ports at the rear of
your computer and by using the peripherals attached to the control-
lerinterfaces
in use. Several of the ports and interfaces on your board
are high-performance versions the standard ones:
• Serial Ports
The serial ports use high perfromance 16550 UART chips that
allow the use of much higher transfer speeds.
• Parallel
Port
The parallel port supports two high performance modes, EPP
and ECP, which substantially enhance the performance and ca-
pabilities ofthe port.
If your printer and printer driver (or other
device) are compatible
with either of these modes, you can set
up your system up to use these enhancemen ts.
• IDE ISA Interface
The IDE interface on the mainboard is part of the ISA expan-
sion
bus. You can connect up to two IDE hard disk drives to
the interface connector . Use the Setup utility described in
Chapter 3 to automatically enter the drive specifications.
• SCSI PCI Interface
The SCSI ("Scuzzy") interface on the mainboard is part of the
PCI
expansion bus. This makes it very fast because, like any-
thing else running on the PCI bus, it runs at the CPU's exter-
nal clock speed, which will be either 25MHz or33MHz. If your
system isn't currently set up to use the SCSI interface, you can
refer to Chapters 3 and 4 for information on how to set it up.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • * • • • • •
1- 10
Feature Guide
11
System IROs
Later in the manual you'll see something call ed an "IRQ" men-
tioned severa l times. If you're not familiar with these, this is a s hort
explanation of what they are and why you may need to know about
them if you upgrade your system.
An IRQ, or interrupt request, is the process whereby an input or
output device tells the CPU to temporarily interrupt whatever it is
doing and immediately process something from the source of the
interrupt. When finished the CPU goes back to what it was aiready
processing . This happens very quickly. There are 16 IRQs, IRQ 0
through IRQ 15, in the ISA bus design. Devices that need an IRQ line
to
operate generally must have the use of that line exclusively.
Many expansion cards require the use of an IRQ line to operate,
for
example, network interface cards and sound cards. When you
install a card that uses an IRQ, it will have a default IRQ setting that
you might need to change if that IRQ is already in use. There are dif-
ferent
ways of setting an IRQ assignment, with jumpers being the
most common.
Both the ISA bus and the PCI bus use the same set of systemIRQs.
For the PCI bus there is an additional consideration. On the PCI bus,
you must assign an IRQ to the PCI slot you will install an IRQ-using
card in. There are two methods of generating an IRQ on the PCI bus,
level-triggering (level-sensitive)
and edge-triggering. Most PCI ex-
pansion cards use the level-triggered design. Some very f ew cards
may use the edge-triggered design instead . The mainboard design
therefore provides the means to set the IRQ assignment for a PCIslot
for
either type of card. This is explained in detail in Chapters 2 & 3.
You can also set th e IRQ used by the IDE hard disk interface, the
optional PS/2 mouse and th e SCSI controllerI interface by using the
BIOS
Setup Utility as explained in Chapter 3.
• • • • • • • 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
1- 11

I'
1l
PCI/I-486SP3G User's Manual
The SCSI Controller
As mentioned above, this mainboard has an on-board SCSI in-
terface. The interface is controlled
by an NCR 53C810 PCI Fast SCSI-
2 controller
and the NCR SCSI firmware recorded in the BIOS flash
ROM chip. The SCSI controller is a full 32-bit PCI
DMA bus master
and supports the ASP! and CAM standards.
You can connect a chain of up to seven devices to the SCSI inter-
face. The
standard version of the interface is for "internal" devices
installed in
your system case. The number ofinternal devices you can
connect is therefore likely to be
limited by the space limitations of
your case. The standard cable provided with the mainboard is for two
internal devices.
You can also obtain
an optional PCI bus SC200 SCSI interface card
that provides both internal and external connectors. With this card
you can connect both internal and external SCSI devices to your sys-
tem. Theare details on this card in
Chapter 4.
Two floppy disks with support drivers for the SCSI firmware and
controller come with your mainboard. There is detailed information
about the drivers in "ReadMe" files on the disks. There is more in -
formation
about these di sks in the section on "SCSI BIOS & Drivers"
in
Chapter 3.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
1- 12
~
Upgrade Guide
This section explains how to install options on your ma.inboard.
It covers the most likely and technically accessible upgrades you
might want to do, including adding expansion cards, increasing sys-
tem memory,
changing the CPU chip and adding IDE or SCSI hard
disks and other SCSI peripherals.
Installing
upgrades will either improve the performance of your
computer, or add some additional capabilities to it. You can install
upgrades yourself, or have your dealer or a qualified computer tech-
nician
do it for you.
It is also possible to increase the size ofthe Level 2 cache, but since
this is a
much more technically demanding upgrade that you are both
less likely to w1dertake and in most cases would probably require at
least partially disassembling your system, the technical reference in-
formation about it is in Chapter 4. It is probably best to have a quali-
fied technician
perform the upgrade for you if you want to upgrade
the cache.
I e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e
2- 1